Telecommunications – Field Operations

Our Client is among the leading, full-service tele-communication providers in North America with a workforce of 50,000 employees and yearly sales in excess of $20B. They currently service over 13 million phone lines. They offer a wide range of communication products and services, including telephone services, wireless communications, high-speed Internet, digital television and voice over IP.

There was a lack of tracing information on work orders by previous technicians associated with jobs

Extra work was being completed with no charge to the end-use customer

Lack of effective job assignment led to technicians repeatedly calling the Dispatch Center for their next assignment

Mismatched capacities was caused by not enough work being dispatched for the hours of work available for the technicians

Technicians came back early to the Work Center due to a perceived lack of work

Not matching the tickets to the Technician’s skill set resulting in lower customer service and satisfaction levels

Technician profiles were not updated by the Field Directors, generating issues with the dispatching of the technicians and generating more calls at the Dispatch Center

First-Line Managers avoided following-up with their Technicians (they keep to a minimum the number of visits to the technicians on a monthly basis)

First-Line Managers believed that since their people have been assigned from the Dispatch Center that they know what they need to do

First-Line Managers generally spent almost all of their time doing administrative activities in their offices, rather than being proactive with their people in-the-field

In planning the use of resources, the estimated work times are averages of historical performances and have not been developed based upon the pure time of the activities

PVA's Response

Improved individual, district and departmental performances resulting in the recovery of hours per technician per day

Reinvested these recovered hours to improve customer service and quality of service

Clarified roles and responsibilities of the First-Line Managers to spend more valuable time in-the-field with their technicians identifying and resolving operational issues

Established structured communication between the Dispatch Center and Field Operations to ensure that all First-Line Managers are kept informed of the daily workload of the technicians and can make necessary adjustments as required

Designed and implemented a standard performance measurement process based on an earned hour calculation and other critical Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)

Developed and implemented a resource planning methodology based on volumes and estimated hours to assess the up-coming workload requirements as opposed to using historical information